The idea of perpetual motion in its modern sense has always divided people into two categories: skeptics and aficionados.

While the original tinkerers with perpetual motion (I'm thinking of da Vinci in particular) were in many ways on the forefront of physics, the pursuit of perpetual motion is today scorned by the core body of scientists as naive and uninformed.

Accomplishments ofmodernphysics--such as fission and fusion--may be cited as evidence of the vast complexity necessary to achieve the most rudimentary of reactions in matter.

To the perpetual motion aficionados, fission and fusion are gifts from a devil or god, like the proverbial fire stolen by Prometheus. These aren't things that could be built by one man in one lifetime, and therefore are not essentially human in construction.

The quest for perpetual motion becomes one in which human intelligence is supposed to triumph over the diabolical or god-given powers, powers seen as relying on human labor and sacrifice.

When humans are free from labor and sacrifice, they are free to live a life of mind, or focus on the human problem, as something beyond material needs.